Who Said He Couldn't Keep Secrets?
by smilelaughread
Summary: Draco discovers something interesting about himself that he hadn't known before. HPFC forum challenge: One Line Competition. The one line was "The water looked deep and inviting..."


The water looked deep and inviting, or so Draco hoped.

Paying such close attention to his current activities, Draco failed to hear Harry's footsteps approaching from behind. It was why Draco started when Harry placed his hand on Draco's shoulder.

"Oh my god, Draco. That's amazing." Harry's free hand reached out, as if to touch the wall, Draco promptly smacked his hand away.

"You imbecile," he hissed, though there was no malice in the statement. "The paint is still wet. If you touch it, you'll ruin it, and I've spent the better part of two weeks getting it perfect!"

Harry looked at the floor, obviously feeling guilty. Draco huffed a little, taken aback by his own exclamation. He wanted to apologize, but decided Harry could figure it out himself - besides, Draco was bad at apologies.

So Draco stepped back from the wall he had been painting on and admired his work, deciding to keep silent. The scene he had painted really did look life-like; he couldn't blame Harry for wanting to touch it. He cast the counter-charm to the paint repelling charm he had cast on himself and the floor, and bent down to pick up the tubes of muggle paint that were scattered all over the room.

He and Harry had just moved into their new home, and Draco had been in charge of painting the walls. Draco had gotten bored of painting each wall one singular colour, and had begun experimenting with different patterns and designs. Harry, whose job had been to unpack the multitude of boxes they had brought, encouraged him to paint scenes on the walls. Draco's latest project, this last wall, was one of his most complex paintings so far. It was his baby, and after putting in so many hours, he was proud.

It looked so realistic, and yet it was fully muggle - not one spell or charm had been used. Draco hadn't been too sure about this painting thing at the beginning, and he had argued with Harry about painting the whole house the magical way. But they had quickly found that muggle paint had a property that didn't work well with magic, and Harry was oddly against using Wizarding paint. He said it seemed too dull. Whatever.

But now that all was said and done, Draco had to admit the house looked perfect.

He heard Harry kneel down and help pick up other things that were scattered on the floor. Paintbrushes, the chair Draco had been standing on, and pictures of the ocean were among the many things there. To Draco's embarassment, there were also various candy wrappers - muggle candy really was the best - all over the room. He had been so into this project that eating was something he had to to quickly, as he was unwilling to waste time on _eating_ if he could be working. They were done cleaning fairly quickly, and Harry banished the garbage. Draco took his brushes and the paint to the bathroom, and proceeded to rinse the paint off. He did it meticulously, not wanting his expensive brushes to be ruined by dry paint. Harry followed him into the bathroom after pocketing his wand.

"I'm sorry for almost ruining all your hard work, Draco," he said. "It just looks so real. You're an artist, Draco. The whole house looks absolutely stunning! Hermione's going to be so jealous..."

Draco smirked, turning the tap off and spinning around to face Harry. "I'm so full of talent!" Draco said, sounding rather full of himself. "But thank you."

Harry nodded, fully used to Draco's antics after all the time they had spent in each other's company after the war. "When do you think it'll be dry?"

Draco looked confused, "You seem rather interested in touching my hard work. I dunno if I can let your grubby hands dirty my masterpiece."

"I just want to make sure it's not real. It looks so amazing... I can hardly believe we don't actually have a wall that is connected to the ocean!"

"Yes, well," Draco sniffed, turning his nose up. He looked a bit pink from all the complements he was recieving from Harry. "It should be dry by the end of the week, I still have to go over it so that it doesn't begin peeling off."

"Right. Thanks. By the way, what gave you the idea for the ocean scene?. Not that I'm complaining; it's flawless."

"Oh, stop it. You did an amazing job of putting all our things in logical, easy-to-reach places, too. It's not all me. Besides, it reminds me of our honeymoon, love."

Harry too was blushing. "It wasn't a honeymoon, it was a vacation! And that's not even what the beach looked like."

"Only because you were too chicken to propose, it wasn't our honeymoon!"

"Lay off it, Draco." Harry was laughing, shoulders shaking in laughter.

"I was all ready to say yes, thinking you had whisked me off so we could get married good and proper, but then you didn't."

Harry stepped towards Draco, who was trapped between his husband/boyfriend and the sink. He tried to cover Draco's mouth with his hands, but Draco continued.

Voice muffled, he said, "You pulled it out of your pocket, I saw it. And then, you swallowed all of your water, practically choking, I might add! You turned as red as that sunset I painted in the guest bedroom last month, and stuffed it back into your robes. Luckily, I noticed it all and proposed to you later that week."

Harry's arms dropped to his sides and he buried his face in Draco's neck. "Stop it."

Draco stopped, sensing that he would soon be going too far.

Then Harry stood up, looking Draco in the eye. "On the up-side, we can now make love in front of the sunset and on the beach and in some fields without going anywhere! All thanks to your amazing painting skills."

Draco looked at him for a moment before bursting into laughter. "You're right, Harry."

"I know."

Silence.

"I would have done it eventually, but Draco Malfoy always has to be perceptive, doesn't he?" Harry's tone showed his amusement.

Draco simply shrugged. "You know, you make a lousy Gryffindor. Couldn't muster enough courage to as me to marry you, could you? And then again, you make a lousy Slytherin, too. You were not sneaky in the least about it, and you hid the ring in about the worst place possible."

"It's not like you're all that good at secrecy, Mr. I-Can't-Make-A-Surprise-Breakfast-For-Harry-Without-Waking-All-Of-Britain-Up! Don't even get me started on the supposed surprise birthday party you tried to throw me!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Well, what would you say to a trip to the ocean?"

Harry nodded, taking Draco's hand. The anger between the two - no matter how lighthearted - vanished instantly. Harry was a bit confused, but he smiled brightly anyway; this was bound to be interesting. They walked to the room where the giant mural was, and were both once again taken aback by the beauty of it.

"Do you trust me, Harry?" Draco looked at Harry, who rolled his eyes in a 'that's a stupid question, just get on with it' kind of way. Draco took out his wand, renewed his hold on Harry, and apparated them to a house. It was small, very quaint. "Look out the window, Harry."

Harry followed Draco's instructions and gasped. "Where are we?"

The surrounding area looked exactly like Draco's painting. "Where are we? We're on our honeymoon, silly." Harry whirled around, perplexed. Draco just smiled knowingly. "Surprise! I told you it reminded me of our honeymoon."

"You prat! I love you," Harry said, looking overwhelmed.

"Love you, too! Race you to the deep and inviting water that I hopefully painted very accurately on our wall?"

Harry nodded, and they took off like children towards the water's edge, jumping into the deep, cool, salty water with all their clothes on.

When they floated up to the top, gasping for air, Draco - in his waterlogged state - still managed to smirk and say, "And you said I couldn't do secrecy or surprises! I bet you didn't see this one coming."

"Oh, shut up." Harry splashed water at Draco's face.


End file.
